“So, what do I care? What does this have to do with those plants?”
Mathias looked off into the air, as if trying to control his rage. “Where should I begin? I dug up a ship’s log in the archives a while back, written by some biologists. ‘A set of rare, most extraordinary creatures’ wrote the chief biologist, ‘exhibiting remarkable intelligence in their ability to adapt to sudden pressures. We subjected them to all sorts of tests before the accident happened. They seem to have no ambition, other than to protect their environment, stasis and habitat, to an obsessive degree.’” Mathias fixed his eyes on Yul. “It seems you witnessed the phenomenon, or were privileged to see first-hand the aliens in action.”
Yul set his jaw.
“The tragedy is that the Ventura Explorer never returned from out in the Dim Zone to report its full findings or accumulate workable data or samples. If they did make it off the planet, they were either horribly attacked or waylaid by outer-zone pirates before reaching safe haven at Pzison gate. It’s the Dim Zone after all.”
Yul twitched. That explained the expedition to Xeses. “But why the fuss about acquiring the plants?”
“Xeses was a planet of only moderate interest to explorers, colonists, or a few curious scientists, even miners, owing to its large deposits of selenium. I’m thinking that’s what gave the plants their innate intelligence.”
Recalling the strength and instantaneous adaptive morphing, somehow Yul thought not.
“Consider their super-adaptive abilities—it’s a trait embedded in their DNA. Lucky for you, you secured a small sample for us, or I’d have terminated you. Goss, here, says more by accident than generosity did you deliver us the sample. We want to channel these capabilities into a new line of mechnobots.”
Yul’s mind flashed on the butterfly creature and he gave a cold shudder. The insect, he recalled, was content to sit in its contained environment biding its time, even though it had the ability to wrest itself out of its prison. But it chose not to.
An advanced form of life, unknown to anything on earth-like worlds. What could the thing not do or become in the hands of some ambitious madman like Mathias...? Yul stifled his rising anger. It was unproductive at this time. “I’ve given you your sample. My work is done.”
“You’ve only just begun.”
“If I refuse?”
“Things could get very ugly for you.”
Yul grinned sourly. Both men—Mathias and Hresh, ruthless technocrats in their own right, were unpredictable, and he was caught in the middle. The little voice in his head that he should have heeded, and didn’t, was speaking again—
Sensing hesitation, Mathias nodded to Goss. Before Yul could act, Goss drew a star-shaped weapon from his hip. A blue flare shot out blasting Yul with nanoparticles. Yul felt two pinpricks of heat enter his upper shoulder and he cried out, reeling. “Ow! What’d you do?”
A wave of fire seeped into his blood, filtered throughout his entire body. Bastards! They had impaled him with some kind of drug. It jolted him with a deep searing pain.
“Should you try to remove those particles—” Mathias’s face assumed a dark grin “—the effect would be like a long time addict trying to come down off of cocaine. Only worse.”
“Son of a bitch!” croaked Yul, feeling whatever it was, nanoparticles or microscopic dye, suffusing his blood stream.
“I’ve been called worse. Your final instructions will come soon enough. Don’t defy me, Vrean.” Mathias’s eyes bored daggers into him.
Yul hunched, eyes darting around for options. He had to get out of here.
“The beauty, simplicity of the implant—is that it is undetectable by modern instruments—MRI, surveillance scanners, probing extractors—the dye could be in any part of your body. We experimented with it on synthetics, pure cyborgs, until we found a compound mix effective on humans. The mixture which cycles in your blood now.”
“Spare me the technobabble.”
“No, this is too much fun. The gun uses light highways for tracking, relaying your coordinates and body signature back from any open local carrier, via radio towers. So, if you wander afield in any way, in some zone, on a ship, near a transmitter, communicator, anything, we will know where you are and can transmit a signal of horrendous pain to your nerve centres. You don’t believe me?” He motioned to Goss.
Goss depressed a button on the star-shaped weapon and it clicked.
Yul felt searing pain crawl over his skin and into his bones, forcing him to his knees.
Mathias chuckled, a wolf’s grin suffusing his face. “That gun is worth 10 million credits. The only one of its kind. I hope this suffices as an adequate demonstration?”
Yul snarled, resentment glaring through his tearing eyes.
“You wonder now why I chose you. You were survivors, commissioned to go out in alien territory, with proven skills to survive and deliver the goods. I didn’t care how you did it or the details. I just wanted the job done and the samples in my hands. Which I got. At least one. But I didn’t expect half of you dead and my ship destroyed. I believe Goss quoted you as saying, ‘I’m nobody’s bitch.’ Well, guess what, you’re mine.”
Yul staggered to his feet, clutching for balance. He had only one advantage—that they still underestimated him.
“Come, I want to show you something. You can be part of something big, Vrean, knowing that with your efforts, you will be participating in forging a new techno-empire.” He waved a hand and the massive door opened. He swept through like a prince, his swagger confident, his spirits high. Yul limped after, goaded by Goss’s pain dispenser in his back, feeling the aching tingling in his nerves, his spine seizing up after the nanoparticle invasion.
Mathias took them through a high-ceilinged chamber, then down a ramp into a luminous glass elevator which descended several storeys
